Mock drill: Govt hospitals in Bengaluru ready to tackle Covid

BENGALURU: Amid a surge of Covid cases in China and other countries, Covid response mock drills were held at government-run Victoria Hospital, Jayanagar General Hospital and KC General Hospital on Tuesday, to check the preparedness to tackle any spike in Covid cases. The mock drill majorly focused on bed capacities, which include oxygen and ventilator-supported beds and ICU beds, availability of doctors and oxygen supply.

Medical Superintendent of Victoria Hospital Dr Ramesh Krishna, who led the mock drill, said, “We have dedicated a complete block at Victoria Hospital with 50 beds; eight of them being high dependency units (HDU) and four ICU beds. To the existing 10 kl and 6 kl oxygen tanks, we have added another tank of 13 kl. We have handled more than 15,000 positive cases till date. We have enough staff to handle the surge and they all have undergone critical care training.”

Dr Sudha B M, Covid Nodal Officer at Jayanagar General Hospital, said after the mock drill that there was no reason to panic and right from oxygen supply to reserving beds, everything is in place to tackle any sudden surge in Covid cases.

Dr Sujatha Rathod, Medical Superintendent at Minto Hospital, said that during the last Covid wave, they assigned 100 beds for Covid, however, many of them remained unused, since admissions were less. Hence, this time they plan to assign only a small percentage of beds for now.

An administrative official from KC General Hospital said they had not assigned specific beds for Covid, as there were no hospital admissions currently. In case a patient would come to the hospital, they plan to refer them to Bowring Hospital. He said if the number of cases increase, they would assign beds accordingly.